Seventy years ago, April 1945, Popular Mechanics carried a feature about the War Department’s Signal Center in Washington and its radio station, which bears the call letters WAR. The article noted that the station at this nerve center of the War Department handled 8-9 million words per day, with direct hookups to forces throughout the world. The WAC operator shown here is overseeing tapes on an automated code sending machine. At the other end of the circuit is the station at Bougainville shown below.

The call sign WAR is heard on the airwaves at least once a year during the annual Armed Forces Day Cross-Band Communication Test when the station, along with other military stations, makes contact with amateur operators.

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